Are Tropickles, fruit punch flavored pickles, the next great sweet and salty snack?
Walmart is selling the Southern delicacy of fruit punch pickles.
Pickles are very much a love-it-or-hate-it type of food, making pickle-related food news ripe for hot takes. But a lot of people fall into the “love pickles” camp and as such, there’s in fact a lot of pickle-related food news to opine on as various brands, restaurants and food fans attempt to cash in on the popularity of the pickle. Enter Tropickles, fruit punch flavored pickles now produced and sold by Walmart.
According to Delish, Tropickles are available at around 1,200 Walmart locations, which sell the snack under the store’s Great Value brand for a cool $2.
Like all good things ultimately mass produced by a conglomerate in the 21st century, the concept of tropickles came from social media. But at least Walmart was willing to give credit, or something? Per Delish, a statement from Walmart read:
"The modern-day couple, the pickle and fruit punch met on social media (they bonded over recipes on Pinterest, to be exact); now, we are celebrating their union on Walmart store shelves."
Tropickles are only $2, but if you choose instead to channel your inner Southerner, you can make your own Tropickles — with fruit punch, Kool-Aid or the fruity artificial drink of your choice — by marinating the pickles in a pickle juice / fruit drink mixture for at least a week. (If you make the Kool-Aid variation, you’re obliged to call them Koolickles.)
Striking the right balance of sweet and salty in a dish is truly an art and executed well, a top tier snack. TBD on whether Tropickles, as produced by Walmart, every reach the upper echelon occupied by such esteemed sweet/salty snacks as Trader Joe’s sea salt chocolate almonds, but for fans of pickles, the odds are quite good.
And with a name as good as tropickles, pickle fans deserve a top tier delicacy.